Tinagrl

Melody i agree with you. I am a FIRM believer in the Atkins/low carb eating plans. It is amazing how you can see lab work go back into normal ranges and people coming off insulin all from cutting out the carbs. I plan on eating very low carbs...and sticking to as close to atkins as i can after my surgery. I do know that people dont know that Atkins diet DOES promote that we eat 12-15g of carbs a day in only Vegetables. That is a lot of veggies if you look at the back of veggie packages at the carb content in vegetables. They are generally very low in carbs if they arent a starchy veggie. And you dont have to eat a bunch of fat if you dont want to. I eat Turkey bacon instead of fatty bacon. Change it up a bit, but cutting out the unhealthy carbs...starch, white flour, ect....can never be a bad thing Happy New Year everyone!!! Tina

I would like to start a "daily reflections" type support thread here on LBT for people with Self Esteem issues and codependency that in turn causes us to overeat and engage in self destructive behaviors. I really personally need support on these issues and desperately am in need of forming some close online friendships to help me deal with my own self esteem and co dependency issues. Please join me in an attempt to recover from codependency and low self esteem and do it TOGETHER Here is my daily reflection for this morning: I am hoping to get to the book store today and purchase a book on low self esteem and codependency. I want to educate myself more on the reasons BEHIND my overeating and other addictions. I know i have a slew of life's issues due to my low self esteem problem. My relationship is unhealthy and i generally feel terrible about myself. I am about to make some major life changes by having the lap band surgery but i think its important that we get to the bottom of WHY it is we are addicted to food and WHY it is we overeat. Join me please to build a support system together ....share your experience strength and hope with us in hopes to form new friendships and make headway into a new and healthy life!!! Laters, Tina

WOW! They seriously own Cinnabon?!!!! Too funny! That cracks me up!!!

Yeah i was on it a while back and lost a ton of weight too. Went down to 165lbs. I love Atkins. Im glad im back on it. I do see your point about the fat being too high but what they say is that the fat helps to keep your body in "ketosis". Something to do with burning fat in Ketosis. I dont really know. I was going to get the new book.

Is anyone following the Atkins plan for before or after Lapband surgery? Im thinking about following a low carb until my surgery pre op starts and then again after surgery. Anyone doing this?

I'm not sure if any of you lived in a dark constant depression when you were gaining and at your heaviest. I am about to undergo surgery and i've realized i've been in a depression for 2 years. It is a realization that hit me HARD yesterday. I realized that all of my depressive moments which have been constant for quite some time were not all caused by Mom's illness and that indeed i was in a depression from going off of a medication 2 and 1/2 years ago. I dont really know what to blog about except that i hope the new medication helps me and that i can learn to stand back up and take back my life from the dark place its been all this time. The surgery day is coming soon after a 2 week liquid diet in which i have heard is the toughest part of the lap band procedure. I can do it though, it will all be worth it in the end Laters, Tina

Congrats to you!!! I cant wait for that day!!! Im very proud of you , this is a hard road.

Well, today was a very sad and depressing day for me. I laid in bed half the day feeling sorry for myself , something usual for me lately it seems. My mother passed away last Easter on Easter Sunday. She was very very sick with a rare form of Cancer. To explain why i'm extremely grateful that Christmas is over is sort of a long story: I will begin saying that my mother was the most disciplined determined woman i have ever met in my entire life. When the doctors gave her 8 months to live she told them they were wrong and that she would do whatever she could to fight for her life. My sister had a friend who happened to know a Cancer survivor and her friend suggested to my sister that Mom try the holistic high alkaline diet; and as my mother told us a short time later, Cancer cant survive in an alkaline body. Which is actually true so we found out over the next 2 years or so. My mother went on a regimen of taking supplements, in the number of around 10-15 or more a day, and began to alkalize her body by eating high alkaline foods such as juiced veggies (the juiced veggies reminded me of a thick green sludge, something that comes out of your butt on a bad day) Like i said...determined. She ate no red meat., in fact nearly no meat at all. Vegan diet sort of. Nothing low alkaline. It was a very hard diet for anyone to be on but my mother, being as amazing and determined as she was, did this diet every day of her last 2 years. She lasted a year and half longer than those doctors told her and she actually made believers in the high alkaline diet out of her medical doctors. My mother came here to Nashville to visit last Christmas. By then she was pretty sick and had a difficult time getting on a plane and flying here from Vancouver Canada, but she did it. All for me. She knew i couldn't come to Canada for Christmas and she wanted to spend it with the WHOLE family and she wanted me to be with her too so she came here as sick as she was and we made a Christmas in Nashville. The high alkaline diet was beginning to not be able to keep up with her failing organs. So, she spent a lot of her time here snuggled up to me on the couch in her red pajamas. On Christmas Eve, my sister made a nice dinner of Prime Rib Roast and all the fixins. My mom sat at the table with all of her children and grandchildren all together for the first time in my mothers life. She cried a little and said how grateful she was for this Christmas and how wonderful it was to have us all together. THAT made it so worth it for everyone. A tad bit of bickering between sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews...typical family drama on Christmas. It was SO worth it to see my mother on that night and the look on her beautiful face. So you see, that is why Christmas was so hard this year. I remember the beauty of last Christmas and then looking at this Christmas, alone, no family, sister went to LA, father in Canada....just me and Jeani. The best part was a fire we lit on Christmas eve. I told God i was sorry i didn't celebrate Jesus's birth in a better way but that i just couldn't get up the Christmas spirit this year. God said it was fine, and we got through it. Today i just cant help but look at this last month and recognize that all the mood swings have been because of losing my mother this Easter and the fact that i am the kind of person that just cant look at things the way other people do. I shut it all up inside and dont let anyone know what is inside of me or what i am feeling or thinking. So running through peoples lives with a tornado of mood swings probably wasn't the best thing to do. Its how i cope though and maybe someday i will learn how to cope like a normal human being. Maybe sooner than later i hope. But this is the reason why i am so shut down, quiet and sad this Christmas season. So i hope the people in my life can understand that i am sorry for being such a jerk, and so quiet and withdrawn. And why i am so glad today, that Christmas is over. That i can now look at the next year and pray for happiness and success. And hope that maybe next Christmas, it will be filled with a little more joy and a little more spirit. Until next time, Tina

OMG i SO know how you are feeling. I'm having HELLA mood swings! I had a melt down a couple days ago thinking, why and how did i let myself get to this point?! How did i eat myself into this misery i currently live in. I went to the grocery store tonight to get some things for my WW plan im on until my surgery pre op diet starts and walking around the store for the time i was there killed me. I had to waddle to the car to sit down because there was no benches or anything around the store for me to sit down on. Its a miserable feeling when you cant even grocery shop anymore because being on your feet too long gives you back cramps and legs get tired...then your arms get tired from holding yourself up on the cart. Misery. One word for it. And im very scared about being put out. Ive been put out a million times for other procedures but im scared for this one. Merry Christmas to you, you will do fine!! Grats! <3 Tina

Yeah me too! I have like 11 days now to my appt. I'm counting the days. I cant wait to get healthy. I am happy for you, glad you commented i need some friends around here Best of luck to you and hope you have a smooth surgery and recovery Tina

I have 12 days until my appointment with my surgeon to discuss the surgery date. I'm very excited about this. My journey to the surgery date is finally coming to an end and my new life begins. I'm on Weight Watchers right now and doing well with it. Ate a Salmon fillet tonight and didn't realize how fatty that fish actually is. 9 points for a salmon fillet! Had half serving (1/2 cup) of rice and a nice pile of brussels and green beans with a little light butter. I was very full afterward and havent needed a snack since dinner. I am noticing i have what i know some people call "head hunger." I hate it, it shows me just how bad my addiction to food really is. When i just ate dinner or something and the first thing im thinking about it what i can eat next! Not a good thing. I'm going to stay on WW after surgery because it works for me. I will prob get nowhere near the points in that i am allotted but the concept is what keeps me eating healthy. I am excited for the new changes i am about to be making. Will blog more tomorrow, Laters, Tina

Hello everyone, i'm new here. I am getting banded in January and am just in the forums reading and gathering information. I hope people still come to this thread its a good one. I read through nearly all the posts. They all helped alot. I have my appt with my surgeon for the before surgery consultation on Jan 3rd. I am hoping to lose 170ish lbs. Do any of you ever have any problems with doing everyday activities like taking a shower, standing for longer than a few minutes ect.,...idk why i am having so much trouble. I have gained about 75 this year alone though and i am completely sedentary pretty much. Anyway, hope you all have a good christmas, Laters, Tina